Committee and Mrs. Weaver Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. By the constitution much of the most important and most laborious work of the Association devolves upon the members of these two committees. Miss Mary Ebert was appointed Librarian. We were now a full-fledged Library Association, but without books or money or property; with no capital save high hopes, noble purposes, generous enthusiasm. Our first money came from membership fees, and contrary to the old saying, the first hundred was the easiest we ever raised. Our first books and property came from the Reading Room Association. That body urned over to us its property and its debts, the one just about balancing the other. But the best it gave us was neither assets nor liabilities, but a good work well begun; a something tangible to which we could immediately turn our hands and see our ideas materialize. Committees at once set to work canvassing the town for money to free the reading room from debt and carry it on for the next year. The Ways and Means Committee, under the efficient leadership of its chairman, began that series of entertainments by which they have gladdened your hearts and lured the dollars from your pockets so gently that you never felt them going; and soon our work was moving gloriously on. Then more books began to come to us. It seemed that we had an attraction for them and they gravitated to us. Books came in large and small lots from private citizens and societies; the Philharmonic Society disbanding gave us its valuable musical library; the Beethoven Club gave us 200 volumes, the proceeds of a concert; the Junto Club contributed its mite; the Mansfield Lyceum gave into our custody its entire library, a valuable archæological collection and other property; and last the Y. M. C. A. turned over to us books, property and money by the payment of one thousand dollars, making the first patron of our Association, Boyd J. Mercer, a gentleman who years ago thought "we ought to have a library," and dying, bequeathed a sum of money to be used in founding one.

The thing that has struck me most in studying our brief history, is how things have come to us, the generous confidence evinced by those who have preceded us in this work, have brought to us the fruits of their labors. Bequeathed to us their failures, some one said. Their failures? No, their successes. No one has failed who has gathered together a dozen good books. It is the success of our predecessors which has made our success possible. The library, as we now open it, represents not our work alone, but that of all the organizations which, preceding us, have labored to the same end. It represents the aspirations of our people for the past thirty years. Thirty years ago the first effort to found a library in our city was made, and though no book of that first collection has come to us, who can doubt that the good seed sown by the Mansfield Library of the Order of American Mechanics, has borne fruit in our later societies. Col. Alexander McIlvaine was the leader of this pioneer movement which was intended to place good reading in the

hands of the mechanics. Barnard Wolff, Abner Wright, Elias Troutman, Wm. McIlvaine and other old citizens were interested. In its brief existence the library did not grow beyond a small book case in the room of the society in the Market House. During the war many of the members joined the army. They are among those whose memory we honor in this library of ours. They soon disbanded and the books were

scattered.

The next library movement was that of the Y. M. C. A. The Association was organized in Mansfield, January, 1868, with this section in its constitution: "There shall be established at the rooms of the Association, as soon as practicable, a library of bound volumes and periodicals selected under the care of the Board of Managers, which shall be open daily (Sundays excepted) during such hours as the Board shall hereafter direct." Messrs. N. S. Reed, A. L. Grimes, L. J. Bonar, James Emminger, H. B. Davis, Fred. E. Tracy, Matthias Day, General Brinkerhoff and other equally well known gentlemen were prominent in the organization. As promptly as the funds of the Association would. allow, rooms in the Sturges building were pleasantly fitted up and a respectable number of admirably selected books placed there and opened to the public. In 1879 these books were given into the care of the Lyceum and now form a valued part of our library.

The Mansfield Lyceum, the next body to take up the library work, accomplished the most important results. I would be tempted just here. to give an extended history of that body, which has been foremost in many other good works as well as in this, but that I know will be given at the coming opening of the Lyceum in the East Room of this building, with all the charm of personal reminiscence, by those who have been actors in that honorable history. The Lyceum was organized, "For the promotion and cultivation of literary and scientific knowledge," September 6, 1871, with the following officers: President, Col. Barnabus Burns; Vice Presidents, H. C. Hedges, M. D. Harter, H. M. Parker; Recording and Corresponding Secretaries, C. Elliott and J. M. Hillyer; Treasurer, E. W. Smith; Librarian, W. S. Bradford; Member of Board of Directors, J. E. Wharton. A number of meetings had been held preliminary to the organization, two or more in the office of Bradford & Smith; and one in Philharmonic Hall, presided over by A. H. Condict, at which E. W. Smith, J. W. Wharton and N. N. Leyman were appointed a committee to draft a constitution. Other gentlemen prominent in these early meetings were General Brinkerhoff, Dr. Doolittle, Revs. Bronson, Fairfield and Cheshire, and Colonel Fink. The organization was incorporated in November, 1871, and immediately set about, that which was one of its prime objects, though not mentioned in its constitution, the founding of a library. Through Hon. John Sherman a number of Public Documents were received from Washington. A lecture course was arranged for the winter and the resulting funds invested in good books. A com

mittee canvassed the town soliciting donations of books from citizens and received a number of excellent volumes. Early in the spring the books were catalogued and ready for the use of the members. The Lyceum Library was not a free public library, although it was the intention that ultimately it should be so. It was first opened in the Sturges building in the law office of the Librarian, Captain Bradford. It remained there until the spring of 1873, when the County Commissioners granted the Lyceum the use of a room in the basement of the Court House on condition that the library should be open to all citizens of the county who should pay to the Lyceum one dollar annually. When the library was removed to the Court House in May, 1873, it consisted of 300 volumes, about 200 of which were public documents. At this time Capt. Bradford resigned and Col. Wharton was elected librarian. While in the Court House the library was free, as a reading room, when open. For nearly three years following his election Col. Wharton gave to the library his entire time and was largely instrumental in making it what it was at its best. In 1874 and 1875 two festivals were held in the Court House which were most generously patronized and netted a handsome sum. This was expended for books and periodicals. December 1, 1875, Col. Wharton, who was about to remove from the city, tendered his resignation. A resolution passed at that meeting expresses regret at losing his valuable services and bears testimony to his faithful and efficient work, his manly and courteous bearing and his uniform and marked attention to his duties as Librarian. Dr. Doolittle was elected to fill the vacancy and served for a year, devoting a great deal of time and attention to the work. After this the room was only open at stated times once or twice a week.

In 1876 the Lyceum began subscribing for periodicals, assessing members a dollar annually for the purpose. With some variations of plan this was continued until 1885. These magazines could be taken out by members and might be read by any one when the room was open. They remained the property of the library and formed a nucleus of the valuable collection of magazines which we have had bound.

On March 2, 1888, a committee was appointed to confer with the M. L. A. in regard to giving the library into our custody. Various conferences ensued between representatives of the two bodies, terms of trans'fer were agreed upon, an inventory of the property of the Lyceum was made, and on November 14, 1888, articles of agreement were signed and the transfer formally completed. According to the inventory we received 2,106 volumes, including the books of the Y. M. C. A. A comparison of this with the Lyceum catalogue shows that many volumes are lost.

Our immediate predecessor, the Reading Room Association, owed its inception to the Rev. Charles Herr, who was ably seconded by Messrs. John Sturges, F. P. Gass, J. J. Hartley, H. M. Weaver, Hugh McFall, Reid Carpenter, Hobart Scattergood and others. On March 23, 1885,

a Reading Room was opened by these gentlemen in the Hedges building, comfortably appointed and supplied with leading newspapers and magazines. This continued open until it came into our possession. The Reading Room Association purchased no books, but received a number of books and magazines from Mrs. O. H. Booth and about 65 volumes from the circulating library of the Mansfield Reading Club. These came into our possession with the Reading Room. For the first two years of our organization we could do nothing more than carry on the Reading Room and get ready for the future. When in May of this year the Memorial Building was ready for our occupancy and we moved into it great piles of dusty, unassorted books, the task that confronted the Library Committee was prodigious. It looked as though only an expert librarian laboring for a year or two could bring order out of chaos. But the energetic chairman was in no wise disheartened. With the members of her committee she labored day after day with the most self-sacrificing devotion. As soon as the books were on the shelves our worthy president, who in the meantime had mastered the system of cataloguing determined on, gave her entire time to recording and cataloguing. Assisted by all these earnest workers and our industrious librarian, she has admirably completed the task and the books are now arranged in due order. Out of the mass of books a library has been evolved. And now, pigmies, though we be, standing on the shoulders of giants who have gone before us, we can make a very good showing. We, too, have succeeded, even though this should be the limit of our success. Whether we shall continue to succeed depends, fellow-citizens, on you. Alone we can do little. With your hearty co-operation we hope to establish a library which shall, as the years go on, grow to be the noblest monument that patriotism can raise to heroism, a lasting good to every one. of Library, September 4, 1889).

(Read at dedication

MASSILLON.

THE M'CLYMONDS PUBLIC LIBRARY.

In past years several attempts have been made to establish in Massillon libraries of general circulation, and reading rooms, but none of these efforts resulted in an enduring institution until the organization of The McClymonds Public Library.

In the spring of 1897 a great impetus was given to the cause of a public library by the announcement that this community had received a legacy of ten thousand dollars, available for library purposes through the thoughtful generosity of the late George Harsh. Immediately following this announcement a public meeting was held, which, after expressing by resolution its high appreciation of the valued bequest, proceeded to select a committee charged with the duty of devising a plan for

making the gift effective. At the first session of this committee its deliberations were interrupted by a communication from Mr. J. W. McClymonds, tendering to the citizens of Massillon, in behalf of Flora R. and Annie M. McClymonds, the Nahum S. Russell homestead, in Prospect street, for a public library and reading room, the gift to stand as a memorial to their parents, Nahum S. and Esther K. Russell, and giving in his own behalf the sum of twenty thousand dollars, to be held in trust as an endowment fund for the library. These munificent gifts were appropriately acknowledged to a public meeting of Massillon's grateful citizens.

It was now evident that the establishment of a public library in and for the community was an assured fact. To better perpetuate same and conserve its true interests, The McClymonds Public Library Asso

ciation was formed under a state charter, and June 4, 1897, organized with the following officers and trustees:

J. W. McClymonds, President; Mrs. C. McCullough Everhard, Vice President; E. A. Janes, Treasurer; C. A. Gates, Secretary; Mrs. Helena R. Slusser, F. H. Snyder and J. C. Corns.

After some eighteen months of preparation, the year 1899 witnesses the fulfillment of the hopes of past years: a public library, permanently established, free to every citizen of Massillon. There will be found on its shelves about ten thousand volumes, bought with the George Harsh bequest, besides many volumes the gifts of citizens and triends of the library. Current literature and additional books will be constantly supplied through the income derived from the endowment fund. Donated works of art adorn its walls, and subsequently will be added a splendid. archæological collection, curios, etc.

The alterations necessary to adapt the building to library uses, and the furnishing of same, involving an expenditure of four thousand dol